American International Journal of Social Science

Towards a Humanistic Definition of Greed
Jeevan F. D’Souza, C. Kelly Adams

Abstract
Human greed and rapacious self-interest are deleterious influencesnot only on theindividual, but to society and the environment as a whole. The influence human greed and its consequences have on both self and society has been a topic of philosophical, sociological, and political debate since antiquity. Classical arguments,as well as tenets of the Judeo-Christian tradition,point to aggressive pursuit of cupid nouswants and materialistic selfinterestas both an underlying cause of human suffering and an impediment to a truly flourishing society throughout recorded history.This article enlists Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory and integrates seminal psychological theories and research to define fundamental human needs and drafts a framework to demarcate the boundary between human needs, and wants that go beyond reason and temperance.Some suggestions to prevent the condition of human greed are also discussed.

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